Research Paradigms: Positivism, Hermeneutics

Positivism vs. Postpositivism

• Positivism asserts that true knowledge originates from empirical or sensory evidence and logic.
• Positivism supports using scientific methods, like experiments and statistical analysis, across all study fields.
• Positivism believes scientists can stay independent and objective in their studies.
• Postpositivism considers scientists' personal backgrounds, historical contexts, and values in research.
• Postpositivism accounts for potential biases and value judgments in research.

Hermeneutics (Theory)

• Study human behavior using religious or media texts.
• Aim to interpret social interactions and media content by understanding the historical and social context.

Critical (Theory)

• A critic makes judgments about social behavior or cultural products
• Critical theorists aim to uncover the underlying causes, motivations, and struggles within social reality

Normative (Theory)

• Seeks to establish a standard or ideal way things should function.

Mass Society Theory

• Suggests individuals in today's society are isolated and susceptible to extremist ideas.
• From the 1850s-1950s, it aimed to analyze how mass societies worked and what was lost during the shift from traditional agricultural communities to modern urban societies because of industrialization and urbanization.

Semiotics

• Study of signs and symbols in relation to media.

Signs + Symbols

• Languages form systems or codes made of arbitrary signs.

Polysemy

• Media texts like movies, TV shows, ads, and news articles have various meanings.
• Media texts can be interpreted in different ways by different audiences.

Ideology

• According to Karl Marx and socialists, is a set of ideas that serves as the basis for an economic or political system.
• Havens and Lotz define ideology as the "lenses" used to interpret the world.

Compensatory Practices

• Strategies media industries, creators, or audiences use to address perceived shortcomings, biases, or limitations in media content, production, or reception.

Economies of Scale

• Occurs when the average cost of a commodity decreases as output expands.

Bourgeoisie

• The ruling or dominant class in a capitalist system.
• Bourgeoisie typically control the means of production, including media institutions.

Estrangement/Alienation

• Concepts describing the distance between audiences and familiar ideas, societal norms, or themselves that media creates.

Structural Standardization

• Achieved through schematic methods
• Easily imitated formulas and techniques
• Results in standard reactions
• Leads to conditioned reflexes, uncritical consumption habits, and obedience

The Commodity Form

• Things, services, ideas, and people are transformed into objects for sale in a capitalist economy
• Promotes consumption without critical thought.

The Culture Industries

• The culture industry manipulates tastes to maintain dependence.
• Media is responsible for institutions that control the working class.
• Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer said mass-produced culture makes money and controls thought.

Glamor

• It is a "now we present" attitude with "richness and roundness of sound" and a "mental construct of the success story".
• Glamor is a type of pseudo-individualism, where a song creates good feelings.

Plugging

• Relentless repetition of a hit to make it successful.
• Music sounds the same with a standardized structure

Pseudo-individualization

• An illusion of free choice in a highly standardized world.
• Standardization offends taste and consumer choice so it must be hidden.

"Leisure Time"

• Distracts people with forms of entertainment, prolonging work.

Recognition

• Repetition leads to recognition, then acceptance.
• Vague remembrance - "I must have heard this somewhere"
• Actual identification - "That's it"

Social Cement

• An agent that connects communities/societies.
• There are two promoted listening cultures: rhythmically obedient and emotional.

Rhythmic Obedience

• Characterized by listeners whose response to music immediately expresses their desire to obey.
• Adapting to machine music is giving up your own human dealing for fetishism of the machine.

Wish Fulfillment

• Music allows people to see what they lack but desire.
• Serves as a space for audiences to vicariously experience desires, fantasies, or ideals not attainable in reality.

Katharsis

• The emotional release that audiences experience when they engage with media
• Specifically with intense or dramatic narratives.

Ambivalence, Spite, Fury

• Ambivalence - "Mass listening habits are ambivalent" because of "the rapidity with which the modern becomes obsolete"
• Spite - "arises from the unwillingness to admit the shame of having one's resistance overcome
• Fury - fury comes when spite boils over and a rage-filled hysteria takes over

The Aura

• The aura is the unique presence of original art
• Benjamin argues that the aura is lost through mass reproduction.

Exhibition Value

• How a media text is presented and its display affects its significance within the cultural context.
• Format, aesthetics, and context contribute to its perceived value in terms of cultural capital, prestige, and marketability.

Revolutionary Potential of Film

• Film can serve as a powerful medium for social, political, and cultural change.

Empiricism

• Knowledge comes primarily from sensory experience.
• A view of epistemology, the study of human knowledge, along with rationalism and skepticism.
• Uses systematic investigation with experimentation and observation to test hypotheses and models.

Hypodermic Needle/Magic Bullet

• Agrees with the "Mass Society" Communication Theory.
• It is a "Strong Effect model."
• Media injects messages into a passive audience's brain like a 'needle'.
• Asserts that media has a strong, negative impact on society and individuals.
• Similar to the "magic bullet" theory, where media's message is a bullet into the viewer's "head."
• Hitler's monopolization of mass media to promote Nazi ideology contributed to evolving this theory.

Content Analysis

• It is how to categorize and separate content into component parts?
• Empirical studies count content by defining units of analysis for organization and understanding.

Audience Analysis

• It looks at who receives media messages and how they're categorized.
• Involves studying the characteristics, preferences, and behaviors of the intended audience.

Control Analysis

• Very little administrative school research dealt with this question, who was usually funding the research.
• War of the Worlds research was funded by CBS to improve their image.

Propaganda Studies

• This studies information diffusion and how propaganda influences people
• It began after WW1.
• Propaganda uses visual stereotypes and symbols, reinforcing racial, gender, and cultural norms, which identifies themes, patterns, and functions.

The War of the Worlds

• Radio drama by Orson Welles caused mass panic because people believed it was real.
• In the '40s, the dominant perspective was mass society theory.
• The 1938 "War of the Worlds" broadcast caused panic because people thought it was real.
• It involved a small but vocal population with a specific psychological disposition that panicked.
• This realization led to empirical audience effects research.
• By the '60s, the dominant perspective was limited effects theory.

Voting Studies

• Tracked 600 (in 1940) and 2000 (in 1944) voters.
• Media generally did NOT have a profound effect on people's voting behavior.
• Interpersonal interactions were far more influential.
• A small number of individuals were influenced by media messages
• Opinion leaders influence those around them and were coined as the two-step flo.

Interpersonal Interactions

• Interpersonal interactions were far more influential than the media in the voting studies.

"Who Says What to Whom and with What Effect?"

• Who: Control analysis
• What: Content analysis
• Whom: Audience analysis
• What effect: Effect analysis (interview data)

Status Conferral

• Giving status and legitimacy to people, organizations, or issues by raising public notice, media provides status and legitimacy.
• This is one of the social functions of mass media.
• Endorsing legitimizes/elevates/amplifies status by giving a platform to issues.

Enforcement of Social Norms

• The mass media can expose immoral activities, encouraging organized social action.
• This enforces the social norms.
• It is the power of the press or "the bright glare of publicity."
• Standards have become "frozen" through social enforcement upon agencies.

Canalization

• Media redirects pre-existing behavior, but struggles with fundamentally reshaping value systems.
• It is one of three conditions for effective propaganda: monopolization, canalization, and supplementation.
• Channels existing values, rather than challenging them.
• Mass media channels pre-existing behavior patterns/attitudes rather than instilling new patterns.

Supplementation

• Mass media propaganda is more effective when accompanied by face to face contacts.
• This can reinforce the message by interpersonal interaction.

The Narcotizing Dysfunction

• Coined by Lazarsfeld, excessive media consumption can lead to apathy instead of action.
• Media creates the illusion of engagement without real participation; which challenges the concept of active audiences.

Social Prestige

• To appear informed
• Study of why people read the newspaper
• Hypothesis created by Bernard Berelson to be tested through quantitative methods (surveys and polls)
• This is how society views your worth based on your achievements and skills that you possess, whether earned or inherited.

Active Audiences

• Can assign new meanings to content unpredictably.
• Interact with media by questioning, discussing, and responding.

Opinion Leaders

• Information and influence flows from media to opinion leaders (gate-keepers) and then from leaders to followers
• Influence mostly flows between leaders and followers at the horizontal level in society
• Opinion leaders often use media and have many social contacts.
• They exist at all community levels, not just corporate leaders and business tycoons.

Snowball Interviews

• A recruitment technique where participating research members recruit more participants.

The Drug Study (1954-1955)

• Investigates inter-physician influence.
• Finding- interpersonal networks can be mapped by tracing the diffusion of a specific item across a social structure over time.
• Social and interpersonal factors determine the sequence of diffusion.

Project Revere (1951-53)

• Improving communication and information strategies during the Cold War.
• Important for government strategies, public opinion research, and technological impact.

Preventative/Incremental Innovation

• Preventative innovation is adoption to avoid losing desired value in the future - slower adoption rate: Ex. Seatbelt
• Incremental innovation is adoption to gain possible value in the future - faster adoption rate: Ex. Games

Selectivity

• Limits mass media effects.
• Selective exposure is what individuals choose to expose themselves to.
• Selective attention is measured by how much attention individuals give media, depending on their social setting.
• Selective interpretation is understanding messages based on mood, cognition, or knowledge.
• Selective recall/retention is when individuals remember or forget parts of messages.

Social Distance

• "Me and you" vs "Them."
• Defined by demographics like education, age, ethnicity, and gender.
• Perceived separation based on social, cultural, economic, or ideological differences that influence empathy interactions and group dynamics.

Pluralistic Ignorance

• When people mistakenly believe their private opinions, beliefs, or behaviors are different from the majority's.
• Even when aligned.

Silent Majorities

• Most people passively consume media instead of actively engaging.
• People don't really participate, media creates a fake reality, not everyone thinks for themselves

Symbolic Catharsis Theory

• Viewing violent may release tension and reduce aggression.
• Seymour Feshbach's theory - appears in Berkowitz et al
• Berkowitz completely disagrees with this theory

Desensitization

• The theory that you become immune to violence by constant consumption of the media
• Reaction to violence becomes less noticeable with constant repetition, becoming jaded.

Disinhibition

• Media enables us to express behavior we otherwise wouldn't.
• Acting online in ways we wouldn't face-to-face.

Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

• People lash out at a scapegoat if they can't address the source of their frustration.
• Those who hate Biden, lash out on Biden supporters, even if the issue is with Biden.

(Issue) Salience

• The state of information is more noticeable, meaningful, or memorable to audiences
• Enhanced salience makes receivers more likely to gather, store, understand the message

Correlation vs. Causation

• Studies find patterns or connections between media content, demographic data, and social behaviors.
• Causation can be determined by experiments with testing variables, like lab and field experiments.
• In the end, correlation does not mean causation

Protest Framing Cycle

• Framing groups as good vs bad, admirable vs terrorists
• Ex) Organized activists vs eco-terrorists, racists vs racial terrorists, violent looters vs black lives matter

Frankfurt School Critical Theory

• Theorists: Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin
• Where, why, and by whom was the Frankfurt School founded? How did it end up in the US?
• What is a commodity, and why is the standardization of the commodity form so consequential?
• What role does the commodity form play in mass media and in capitalist social life?
• How does the individual consumer experience media content produced by the culture industry? Is there any room for free will and self aware consciousness from the Frankfurt School’s critical theory perspective?
• Why does mechanical reproducibility cause the aura of art to wither?
• Why does Benjamin consider film to be the mass media form with the greatest revolutionary potential?

Bureau of Applied Social Research (Administrative School) Empiricism

• Theorists: Paul Lazarsfeld, Frank Stanton, Herta Herzog, Bernard Berelson, Hadley Cantril, Robert Merton
• What theories or claims was the BASR responding to when it proposed that media had limited effects? Who or what stood to benefit most from a limited effects paradigm?
• What empirical techniques did the BASR develop and use? What were the relative advantages of qualitative and quantitative methods?
• What did Lazarsfeld and his associates determine media was effective at? Under what conditions did they claim media could demonstrate powerful effects? What did Lazarsfeld and his associates determine media was ineffective at?
• Which of Lazarsfeld’s findings or claims are perhaps unexpectedly similar to those of the Frankfurt School? On what points do the BASR and the Frankfurt School differ most?

Uses and Gratifications Theory

• Theorists: Herta Herzog, Bernard Berelson
• What key features, focuses, or assumptions distinguish U&G research from other administrative school approaches? What aspects of media use and media effects is U&G research particularly effective at exploring and explaining?
• What methods did early U&G research employ? How did their choice of methods shape their findings?
• How did the findings of early U&G researchers compare with the conclusions drawn by Theodor Adorno?
• What criticisms has U&G research drawn? What aspects of media use and media effects is U&G research particularly ineffective at addressing?

The Two-Step Flow Model

• Theorists: Paul Lazarsfeld, Robert Merton, Elihu Katz
• What led to the postulation of the two-step flow model? How does this model support a claim that media has limited effects?
• What role did business play in supporting the development of the two-step flow model? Why might such corporate involvement be problematic for two step flow researchers?
• What methods did researchers utilize to study the flow of personal influence? What advantages and disadvantages did these methods present?
• How did The People’s Choice, Decatur, and drug studies provoke changes to the two-step flow model? What new areas of inquiry or foci did these studies open up?

Information Diffusion Theory

• Theorists: John Robinson, Elihu Katz
• How can different modes of message delivery affect information diffusion? Which forms of message delivery have been shown to be most effective?
• What besides message delivery has been shown to affect information diffusion? How could media practitioners take advantage of Robinson’s findings?
• What role does education play in determining how much information is obtained and retained, according to Robinson?
• What kinds of innovations are taken up at a faster rate and why? If a media practitioner were interested in encouraging vaccine use, what would be the best strategy for spreading this message, according to information diffusion researchers?

The Knowledge Gap Hypothesis

• Theorists: P.J. Tichenor, G.A. Donahue, and C.N. Olien
• What is issue salience? How do you define an “issue”? How does media render an issue salient? Why do McCombs and Shaw argue that the agenda setting function holds stronger explanatory value than selective perception and other alternatives?
• What kinds of data would you need to test the agenda setting function of media? How would you obtain such data?
• Explain how the knowledge gap hypothesis suggests a gap will appear, and the exact reasons the gap will be formed
• What factors are hypothesized to contribute to the formation and expansion of the knowledge gap, what roles do socioeconomic status, education, and the mass media play in the formation and expansion of the knowledge gap?

The Knowledge Gap Hypothesis Continued

• Theorists: P.J. Tichenor, G.A. Donahue, and C.N. Olien
• How does KG research use the concept of selectivity to explain the relative gain of the better educated?
• Assess what questionable assumptions or choices does Tichenor, et.al. make when putting forward and testing their KG hypothesis, and how might these undermine their findings

The Third Person Effect Hypothesis

• Theorists: W. Phillips Davison
• Answer to whom are the first, second, and third person roles assigned in this hypothesis, and state what assumed criteria differentiates the first and second persons front he third person
• Explain how can this hypothesis be proved, and what actions or behavior would we need to see?
• Address what roles do media bias, pluralistic ignorance, and the spiral of silence play in the third person effect hypothesis?

The Third Person Effect Hypothesis (Continued)

• Theorists: W. Phillips Davison
• Analyze What roles do media bias, pluralistic ignorance, and the spiral of silence play in the third person effect hypothesis?
• Explain what the third person effect hypothesis is telling the researcher that is important

Spiral of Silence Theory

• Theorist: Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann
• Analyze how Noelle-Neumann’s background have influenced her theoretical approach, and state what are the possible political ranifications of the spiral of silence theory?
• Describe What induces an individual to fall silent, accord to the spiral of silence theory, and what change in conditions might encourage an individual to become vocal once again?

Spiral of Silence Theory (Continued)

• Theorist: Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann
• Explain How might the widespread adoption of social media affect the spiral of silence?
• Address How might mass media consonance cause researchers to midjudge voter opinion according to spiral of silence theory?
• Identify If the effect will intensify or decrease?

Priming Theory

• Theorists: Leonard Berkowitz, Ronald Corwin, and Mark Heironimus
• Illustrate Why does priming theory mark a shift back towards powerful effects, and in what ways does priming theory still conceive of media’s effects as limited?
• Discuss What alternative explanations did Berkowitz, et.al. reject and why, and state how might these alternatives compare with the assumptions and claims of the Frankfurt School?

Priming Theory (Continued)

• Theorists: Leonard Berkowitz, Ronald Corwin, and Mark Heironimus
• Define how does Berkowitz, et.al. test the frustration-aggresion hypothesis and the disinhibition effect, and explain what methods do they employ to prove casualty?
• Review How do the methods employed by priming theory researchers compare with those of the Payne Fund Studies?
• Analyze What do the findings of priming theory research imply for mass media practitioners?
• Access who or what could benefit from such findings, and who or what could be negatively affected by these findings?

The Agenda Setting Function Hypothesi

• Theorists: Maxwell E. McCombs and Donald L. Shaw
• Give reasons Why is agenda setting considered a “moderate effect” approach, and Identify in contrast to the theory, why isn’t it considered a powerful effects approach?
• Describe and State What is issue salience and How do you define an “issue”?
• Identify How does media render an issue salient?
• Show reasoning and debate as to Why do McCombs and Shaw argue that the agenda setting function holds stronger explanatory value than selective perception and other alternatives?

The Agenda Setting Function Hypothesis (Continued)

• Theorists: Maxwell E. McCombs and Donald L. Shaw
• Identify and debate what special methodological considerations do McCombs and Shaw stipulate for conducting research into media’s agenda-setting function?
• Discuss What kinds of data would you need to test the agenda setting function of media? How would you obtain such data?
• In detail and using fact, address WHy is it so difficult (if not impossible) to prove casualty when it comes to the agenda setting function of media?

Framing Theory

• Theorists: Robert N. Entman, Todd Gitlin, Julian Gottlieb
• Show reasons on Why should framing theory be considered a shift back toward powerful effects and How does framing theory differ from the agenda setting function hypothesis?
• Identify What do frames do and How can we identify and explain frames in the media? Give reason as to What are frames able to reveal about worldviews and ideologies?

Framing Theory (Continued)

• Theorists: Robert N. Entman, Todd Gitlin, Julian Gottlieb
• Give description on What sort of methods can be used to study framing theory?
• Identify Are quantitative methods possible to use and what types of analysis does framing theory dismiss or ignore?
• State Who or what could benefit from framing theory research and Who or what might be negatively affected by framing theory research?

Theodor Adorno

• He developed the theory of authoritarian personality; left wing thinker
• He is known for recognizing that the primary obstacles to social progress are cultural and psychological1.
• leisure time should be spent expanding and developing ourselves to reach after our better nature and acquire the tools with which to change society;
• Adorno believes that leisure has fallen into the hands of The Culture Industry, where modern media is designed to distract us and unable to understand ourselves
• Famously describes Walt Disney as the most dangerous man in America2.
• Capitalism- Does Not Sell Us What We Really Need:
• Theorist that we naturally suppose everything we want is available but we cannot afford it
• He stated our real wants are shielded from us by Capitalist system
• Theorist that Advertising- show us something we really want and than connect it to something we do not really need (Beer commercial shows hot girl and a guy in love and somehow links it back to beer idfk)
• Points out that Our societies are moving away from needing connections and community but economists aim to keep us lonely and consuming

Walter Benjamin

• He is connected with the concept of AURA!
• He famously states that the rise of technology like photography and film has changed the traditional 'aura' that surrounds a piece of art
• Theorist that Wrote essay on how how media technologies affect artistic authenticity. When art becomes mechanical and replicatable, individuality dies
• He believed that the aura of "art" comes from something being tangible and not massed produced

Paul Lazarsfeld

• Theorist that We are more likely to be influenced by other people (opinion leaders) than the mass media
• Wanted to measure the psychological effects of media on audiences
• Coined the Two Step Flow Theory: suggests that opinion leaders pay close attention to the mass media and pass on their interpretation of media messages to others
• Theoretician that audiences are active participants in the communication process

Herta Herzog

• Came up with Uses & Gratifications theories: how people use media and listening to media as an emotional release
• Identified three main uses of media:

1. "listening as an emotional release" 2. "pleasures derived for wishful thinking" 3. life advice obtained from programs

• She Developede empirical methods to actually see what listeners had to say about their radio use
• According to her and Uses and Gratifications theory, people use media for information, personal identity, integration/social interaction, and entertainment.
• Also Known Collaborated with Lazarsfeld and published Personal Influence which presented findings on the importance of interpersonal communication

Elihu Katz (Theory)

• Opposing of the Hypodermic needle, Two-step flows says that media is spread through secondary parties to the general public and media gets spread to thought leaders who in turn spread it to the general public
• Founder of the "Two-Step Flow of Communication” - Most people often form their opinions under the influence of opinion leaders, who in turn areinfluenced by mass media: 1940s voting study - more people tend to make choices based on personal discussionsrather than what they read/watch in the media
• Stated That If opinion leaders are more exposed to the media than the people they influence, the ideas flow from the media to opinion leaders and then to the general population - He also points up that Opinion leaders are very similar to the people they influence and typically belong to the same groups of family, friends, and co-workers but have a heavier interest in the topic he/she is influential in
• Katzs theory, that, Study focuses on the importance of interpersonal relationships and their influence overboth values and belie

John Robinson (Theory) Information diffusion research

• Stated that Information diffusion involves the research of how different media is spread through different population groups. People use media for different things.
• Argued that "The Two Step Flow" oversimplifies information diffusion - since we all receive different information and knowledge dependent on who we interact with on a daily basis
• Showed that interpersonal communication is more persuasive
• Theorist, and He Explores the “shocking ignorance of the American public on matters of basic national concern”: increased use of survey data and compute Findings:
• media tend to reinforce the status quo: well-informed people are motivated to become better informed: education by itself not demonstrated to have any effect - interpersonal contacts are more persuasive than mass media

W. Phillips Davison

• Theorist linked with The Third-Person Effect (Davison): the belief that media only affects other people, not me Other people will overestimate the influence that mass communications have on the attitudes of others - He claimed that . Individuals who are not members of an audience that is exposed to persuasive communication(whether or not this communication is intended to be persuasive) will expect the communication to have a greater effect on others than on themselves

Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann (Spiral of Silence Theory)

• The theory of that, Spiral of Silence Theory (Neuman) - one view often dominated public scene, other disappeared from public awareness as its adherents became silent - people fear separation/isolation of those aroundthem, tend to keep attitudes to themselves when they think they’re in the minority.
• Core Assumtions:

1. That People have a “quasi-statistical organ” (a sixth sense that allows them to know theprevailing public opinion, even without access to polls)
2. People have a fear of isolation and know what behaviors will increase their likelihood ofbeing socially isolated .
3. People are reticent to express their minority views because of fear of isolation or more extreme conditions. Voicing said opinion might lead to a negative consequence beyond that of mere isolation(loss of job, status, etc)

Leonard Berkowtiz

• He was Interested in how media portrayals of violence induce people to act violently themselves
• He theorised that People will have hostile thoughts and will color their interpretations of others, and that they will Believe that forms of aggression are justified and may bring benefitsand that Become aggressively inclined
• he also comes up with the disinhibition hypothesis, which claims that when someone views violence in the media, especially if it is deemed justifiable, one will lower their usual inhibitions and be more inclined to commit violent acts.
• Its important to note that these actions occur a short time after viewing the media; they include having hostile thoughts that can color interpretations of others, the belief that forms of aggression are justified and could bring good, and/or becoming aggressively inclined.

Robert N. Entman Theory

• Frame Analysis Theory: That People use sets of expectations to often make sense of the world and media shape those expectations
• He argued that In the every day world, our senses take in more information than we can process, so focusing and filtering is necessary. that These frames shape the structure of our every day world, and leads us to impose limited meaning on events but experience this meaning as "reality" and states that
• How we simplify complex situations, objects, and people to make quick interpretations: People often resist information that doesn't align with existing frames, and use old frames until they are proven wrong: Ex: Different types of framing-
• Example Framings:
• Horse race framing (who's in the lead), - strategic framing (tactics and how they are used), - personality framing (looking at the personality of the condendant), - issues framing
• That Example: "You should review the midterm it's going to be brutal" vs. "You only need to look up the main ideas you'll be fine"; depending on how he frames how he speaks about the midterm, we will go into it with a different.
• States That : Selecting and emphasizing certain aspects of reality: Frames define problems, diagnose causes, make moral judgements, and suggest changes that influence audience perception and understanding Understanding that people are influenced by framing can make us focus on how we present information we want others to accept and act on
• "stateof mind (or frame):Selecting and emphasizing certain aspects of reality: Frames define problems, diagnose causes, make moral judgements, and suggest changes that influence audience perception and understanding Understanding that people are influenced by framing can make us focus on how we present information we want others to accept and act on"